In order for children to have access to quality educational experiences, all members of the school community must participate in school restructuring (parents, advocates, educators, community leaders, and policymakers). Researchers and teacher training institutions also play a vital role. This book provides easy access to information of particular…

Acknowledging the growing trend to educate school-aged children at home, this book provides a detailed account of home schooling, providing a vision of home education that reflects its multidimensional nature. The book consists of seven chapters: (1) "Learning about Home Schools" describes the research study from which this book is drawn…

In interpreting the intellectual and cultural contexts of gifted education, this book considers how and why U.S. schooling fails to care for intellect and to develop the talents of all children. Rather than acting as stewards charged with nurturing intellectual development, schools concertedly devalue intellect, and this shortcoming is most…

This study evaluated the first phase of a three-phase project to improve baccalaureate achievement rates of minority students in Colorado. The activities of the first phase included gathering more and better data on the progress of students, analyzing those data, and using that analysis to choose and visit institutions that seem to be succeeding…

A study mapped out the current provision of and needs for post-literacy facilities in Tanzania, in particular in the rural regions. Study activities included the following: literature review on post-literacy provision and participation; review of the Ministry of Education and Culture's (MEC's) official statistics on post-literacy provision and…

This book offers practical assistance and guidance in exploring how to discipline children in the classroom and in a whole-school setting in a way that is effective and that respects their dignity. Chapter 1 explores misbehavior, covering the basic needs that motivate behavior (capable/successful, caring/belonging, power/control,…

This paper explores issues that designers of learning environments should consider, omitting issues about knowledge learned and the social settings in which learning occurs that are addressed elsewhere. The perspective taken on design is to think of each decision in terms of its costs and benefits, an approach that may allow designers to minimize…

This study examined whether students perform better academically if they are in a multi-ethnic school setting, in the minority in a predominantly single-ethnic school, or in the majority at a predominantly single-ethnic school. The study looked at three ethnic/racial groups: White, Black, and Hispanic; and analyzed urban students' mathematics and…

This paper explicates methods to motivate African American students to exhibit attitudes and behaviors that are conducive to high academic achievement. In particular, it argues that educational models must acknowledge and correct students' sense of academic futility. Academic futility measures student perceptions of the extent to which factors in…

This study, which examined the curricular decision making of student teachers, links research on the socialization of preservice teacher education with work focusing on socialization in the workplace. Interviews were conducted with four student teachers during their student teaching experience and 1 year after it. Curriculum materials used by the…

The effects of students' preferred learning styles on perceived individual academic achievement, attitudes toward the learning environment, and course completion rates were examined in a distance education setting. Nine female graduate education students attended weekly classes on a Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock, and 17 female graduate…

Now that the State Board of Education has adopted new regulations requiring all Pennsylvania school districts to develop a strategic plan, it seems useful to describe the role of demographic information in that planning process. This Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies (PEPS) report provides a rationale for considering information regarding…

Family literacy programs must acknowledge the family as the primary place of learning, and developers of family literacy programs and curricula must focus on the family unit as a whole, building upon the cultural and knowledge capital of the entire family and acknowledging gender and age power relationships within the family. Educators must…

Building a community of thinkers is a goal for education. In a world in which technology provides a means to communicate quickly and efficiently, educators need to develop models for the use of technology as an integral part of building an environment for teachers to thinking critically and creatively. Technology was used to help create a…

As the number and complexity of required technology-related competencies grow, basic teacher education media courses need to develop alternatives to instructor-led lecture-based formats in order to maintain essential components of course content while incorporating new content in expanding technologies. Creating technology-mediated instructional…